| On
Aug. 18, a small group of activists stood outside Imperium
Renewables headquarters, protesting the recent investment
of $10 million worth of Seattle city employees’
pensions in that company. Imperium, which specializes
in biodiesel refining, would seem at first glance to be
a wise investment.
Not exactly, says Duff Badgley of One Earth, a Seattle-based
environmental advocacy group.
With respect to the financial wisdom of the investment,
Imperium--a fairly young business in a fairly new industry--may
not be an ideal place for $10 million in pensions. These
vital assets, writes the Puget Sound Business Journal,
are typically invested in less-risky stocks, bonds,
and real estate.
But the investment may not be an environmentally sound
one, either.
“One of the problems of the Kyoto Accord is that
it completely ignores country of origin,” says Badgley.
In other words, the thousands of gallons of petroleum
burned during the transportation of palm oil from Indonesia
to Gray’s Harbor complicate any notions of environmental
responsibility. The Seattle-based company has a refinery
in Gray’s Harbor.
That’s not to mention the acres of rainforest lost
to “slash-and-burn” style farming. Through
this kind of deforestation, says Badgley, Indonesia and
Malaysia alone contribute roughly 2 billion tons of carbon
dioxide every year, and have displaced in the process
nearly 5 million native inhabitants of those areas.
The pattern shows no signs of slowing — Indonesia
announced plans last year to devote nearly fifty times
more acreage to palm plantations.
“This is just the kind of fuzzy thinking,”
says Badgley, “that allows the West to drive guilt-free.”
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